Global Voices

English

The world is talking, are you listening?

Ukraine

Wu Wei writes about the EU and “the Ukrainian (or Georgian) reality”: “I speak from experience in working on oil stocks in Ukraine, where the Ukrainian “reality” apparently required to set up an agency for oil stocks first, then worry about what it would do later (legislation, finance, ownership of the stocks even, don't they come in somewhere first? No, that's too difficult, let's just pretend it is in place and do it later, when people understand that).”

Russia

Streetwise Professor writes this about the Russian-Ukrainian gas deal: “So, if the masterful Gasputin has really engineered such a coup, one that in addition to pulling Ukraine into Russia’s orbit, also secures Gazprom’s economic interests, why has the company’s stock performed so badly? The market certainly doesn’t seem to think that Gazprom/Russia have “won” (at least commercially) the latest gas war.”

India

Faizul Khan Tanim visits a hidden Telugu community in North-West Bangladesh and writes about them at My Bangladesh.

Iran

Azarmehr writes that the Iranian authorities want to demolish Khavaran Cemetery altogether. The blogger adds that more than four thousand political prisoners were killed in 1988 and the bodies were dumped in places like Khavaran.

Iran

Mohmmad Ali Abtahi,former reformist vice president, writes that a former reformist minister participated in a demonstration in support of Gaza. When extremists who support president Ahmadinejad saw him, they started to chanted slogans against former president,Mohammad Khatami and his government instead of Israel.

Iran

Pars Arts writes about Reza Dolatabadi's Khoda,a five minute film comprised of more than 6000 paintings produced over two years. You can watch the film here.

Armenia

Unzipped: Gay Armenia pays tribute to local human rights activist Mikael Danielyan who received the Defender of Freedom award during a reception held at the U.S. Embassy dedicated to Martin Luther King Day. The blog congratulates Danielyan, but also notes that award was not so welcomed by the pro-government media in the country.

Iran

Kosoof, a leading photoblogger, says a group of women rights activists gathered to meet Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, with red roses in their hands to wipe off bad memories of slogans which were written against her outside the walls of her house and remind the positive effects of her activities. Watch the photos here.

.

Azerbaijan

Linda in Azerbaijan compares life in the country with that back home and especially when it comes to often probing questions about an individual's personal life. Despite the lack of privacy often encountered, the blog concludes that Azerbaijanis are nonetheless very friendly and have kind hearts.

Azerbaijan

Azer-[bye]-jackie posts a list of 30 interesting tidbits and observations about living in Azerbaijan.